Apple's $120M patent victory over Samsung overturned on appeal

Appeals court reverses ban on Samsung Galaxy Nexus

A U.S. Court of Appeals says that a lower California court "abused its discretion" by ordering a sales ban of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and kicked the case back to the lower court, Reuters reports. The injunction, ordered by Judge Lucy Koh, came about in the days before Samsung and Apple went to trial in California. Samsung filed an appeal two days after the injunction was ordered.

The appeals court took the chance to give its two cents regarding the entire mess. "Sales lost to an infringing product cannot irreparably harm a patentee if consumers buy that product for reasons other than the patented feature," the court said in its opinion. "If the patented feature does not drive the demand for the product, sales would be lost even if the offending feature were absent from the accused product."

It also said there was not sufficient evidence to show that Apple would suffer irreparable harm if sales of the Galaxy Nexus were to continue, and the district court abused its discretion by having irreparable harm be a factor in determining the injunction to begin with.